Construction is Transforming the ‘Entrance’ to Miami Beach, Around a Hostile Intersection in Need of Change Too

Photos by Sean McCaughan.

Multiple construction projects just north of the intersection of 5th Street and Alton Road are transforming the face of the street in that area, from a series underutilized and neglected lots near the prime entrance to Miami Beach to an attractively urban cityscape. The obtuse intersection however, notable for its flyover from the MacArthur Causeway and hostility to pedestrians, has yet to follow with a makeover. I almost died taking the photo above.

On the east side of Alton, at 6th Street, the very attractively designed Urban Box Self Storage (how often is self storage sexy, really?) is well under construction. North of it, developers Crescent Heights (which is dominating new developing all along Alton with a series of quite fetchingly designed buildings) are building a new healthcare center for Baptist Hospital. Construction has already broken ground on that. Last, and by far the biggest, Crescent Heights is clearing and gutting two entire blocks it owns between 5th and 7th on the west side of Alton while lobbying the city for permission to construct a 300-foot tower on the land in exchange for building a new mass transit hub in the base. Until then, a 7-11 still sits splat in the middle of his land even though the convenience store’s old parking lot is half buried under the mountain of an elevated street.

In five years, and again in ten, the main entrance to Miami Beach is destined to look very different than today.

Calvin Klein’s $16 Million North Bay Road House is Still on The Market

What’s going on Calvin? News broke over a year ago that fashion mogul Calvin Klein’s North Bay Road home in Miami Beach was hitting the market for $16 million because Mr. Klein was up and leaving Miami and going to L.A. That was May of 2015. Fast forward to now, over 400 days later, and the historic Mediterranean Revival house is still owned by Klein, still on the market, and still listed at $16 million. What gives?

Gorgeous 1800 Sunset Harbour Drive PH Sells for Neighborhood Record Despite Being in Building That’s Ugly as Sin

The twin towers at 1800 and 1900 Sunset Harbour Drive are massive, monolithic, boxy, and blah stucco-slathered monuments to architecture at its most obtuse. They come with a lovely yacht club, but besides that these things are uuuuugly. They’re so ugly, in fact, that when they were completed the City of Miami Beach lowered zoning heights in the neighborhood to stop anyone else from building more like them.

Nonetheless, the owner of 1800 Sunset Harbour Drive Tower Suite 2/3 has just made a modest killing selling his unit to an Italian, listing agents Oren Alexander and Lauren Fitzpatrick told the Real Deal. It was purchased for $3.1 million in 2013 and redone, and now sold by Alexander and Fitzpatrick for $7.5 million. Both transactions were records for the neighborhood. “The 7,500-square-foot tower suite includes two master suites, a total of five bedrooms, a rooftop deck, 4,000 square feet of terrace space and water and city views of Miami Beach.”reports the Real Deal.

Sexy & Controversial Sunset Harbour Residences Withdraws Height Increase

Sunset Harbour Residences

Deca Capital Group has withdrawn their request for a height variance to build a 90-foot high mixed use project of 15 luxury condos on top of premium retail on Purdy Avenue, after controversy ensued in the neighborhood, reports the Real Deal. Tentatively titled Sunset Harbour Residences, renderings made the design look rather sexy and sleek, with long horizontal lines and a cross-block breezeway. The design would have exceeded the zoned 50-foot height limitations of the area, which annoyed some neighbors including those next door at the Lofts at South Beach, who would’ve lost their north facing views. So, it looks like the little guy (or at least littler guy) won after all.

Nicely Updated Deco Delight on Sunset Island III Wants $3.9 Million

This Art Deco hacienda on Sunset Island III is listed for $3.9 million, and pretty darn gorgeous. Originally designed by the noted deco architect Martin Hampton in 1939, the house maintains most of its deco integrity, including a fireplace, terrazzo floors, and seductive curves (although it has admittedly lost a few things over the years, like the bathrooms). Overall a good show.

Notorious Tremont Towing is Building a Sexy New Parking Garage

1747 Bay Road.

Maybe the sexy parking garage fad has finally jumped the shark. Miami Beach’s Tremont Towing, known for its hard-line attitude, its quick tows, its $20 ATM fees, and its reality TV show, may soon also be known for its attractively styled parking garage. The tow truck company has submitted plans to the City of Miami Beach for a five-level parking facility at 1747 Bay Road where towed cars can be stored, reports The Next Miami, giving them significantly more space than their current lot. The structure will also be lined with office space and “a small amount of ground-floor retail.” The rooftop parking area will also include shade structures. The garage design, by Urban Robot Associates, rises 43 feet, 3 feet taller than allowed by code, for which it will go before the Urban Design Review Board in July.

Lenny Kravitz and Stephen Muss’s Sunset Islands House Hitting the Market for $25 Million

A lavish Mediterranean Revival house on Sunset Island II once owned by singer Lenny Kravitz and currently owned by developer Stephen Muss (known for ‘saving’ the Fontainebleau Hotel in the 1970s and 80s, etc. and also turning it into kind of a meh Hilton) is going on the market for $25 million. The Wall Street Journal got the exclusive on the listing from the Jills, who are listing the property at 1800 W 25th Street. It has not hit the MLS yet.

Casa Kravitz/Muss has a movie theater, gym, elevator, and surprisingly only four bedrooms. According to the Journal, Kravitz bought the 11,270 square foot pile in 2001, shortly after its completion, for just over $8 million and “put his mark on it,” says one of the Jills, by bringing in sand to create a beach. And by ‘beach’ she more than likely means a really nice, glorified sandbox, because a true beach leads to water, with waves lapping the sandy shoreline, and we’re 99.9% sure there are sea walls running the house’s entire 125 feet of waterfront.  In 2005 Kravitz sold the place to Muss, its current owner, for $14.5 million.

Floyd Mayweather Jr., World’s Highest Paid Athlete, Buys $7M Pine Tree Drive House

Undefeated champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., who Forbes ranked as the world’s highest-paid athlete last year, making a whopping $300 million, has spent $7.7 million of that money on a brand new Miami Beach home at 5501 Pine Tree Drive (it’s so new that Google Street View still shows it as under construction). Although the listing closed on May 13th, Mayweather posted a shot of it on his Instagram account nine weeks ago. What’s the deal with those Bugattis anyways? The house is also a nice little upgrade from his even more modest condo in Sunny Isles Beach.

Check Out the Plans for Starchitect Jean Nouvel’s Monad Terrace

Starchitect Jean Nouvel’s design for a boutique condominium tower at South Beach’s Monad Terrace won big applause at the last meeting of the Miami Beach Design Review Board, with the Miami Herald reporting, at the end of a lengthy and powerful review: “The Monad Terrace proposal was enthusiastically approved by Miami Beach’s Design Review Board last week. The DRB cited it as a model for future waterfront development. One board member expressed interest in living there when it was completed. Sales are due to begin this fall.”

The plans, elevations, sections, and most of the renderings below are from Monad Terrace developer JDS Development Group’s submittal to the City of Miami Beach. The design itself is a pair of buildings centered around a watery courtyard, with lagoon and pool, and sightlines straight from West Avenue to Biscayne Bay. More than almost anything else in Miami or Miami Beach, Nouvel’s design psychologically embraces South Florida’s submerged, aquatic future, taking it as a point of inspiration and adapting to it. One 14 story building, and one of only 7, hold 54 condo units in all. A transparent lobby looks out to the courtyard and eventually to the bay, enclosed in a cone of metallic, glassy shields that splay out as one progresses west, and creating was Nouvel calls a ‘reflection machine.’ Certainly, as the sun sets across Biscayne Bay, one can only imagine glowing red skies amplified to the street beyond.